The figures involved in the 'final' of the international European contest are awesome, as always: 24 km of signal cable, 1283 lighting fixtures, 600 rigging points, 3500m of truss, 14 hippotizers, 40 km of power cable, four graphic designers, two lighting designers, 800 moving lights, 14 followspots, 12 GrandMa Light consoles, 24500 control channels, 23 cameras, two video operators, four lighting operators, 200 tons rigged into the roof, 28 Barco HDQ40s, a 6 megawatt generator farm, 30 transport trucks, 210 speakers, eight sound consoles, four weeks of virtual programming, four weeks of live programming and 6878 hotel nights.
Clay Paky has been one of the leading names at the Eurovision Song Contest for many years. For example, 667 of the Italian company's moving heads were used during the 2012 show, which was held in a large pavilion built specially for the occasion in Baku, Azerbaijan. The number of Clay Paky fixtures used this year is even more impressive: 701 lights, even though the show will take place in a significantly smaller venue.
The official list includes all kinds of lighting fixtures: 50 Alpha Beam 1500s, 50 Alpha Profile 1500s, 129 Alpha Spot HPE 1500s, 40 Alpha Spot QWO 800s, 58 Aleda K10 LED washlights, 49 Aleda K5s, 50 battery-powered Glow Up Strip 100 LED bars, 200 Sharpy beams and 75 brand new Sharpy Washes.
Pio Nahum, Clay Paky sales and marketing manager, said, "we are proud that our lights have been chosen again this year for what is an extremely important and unique show on the international scene. The huge variety of Clay Paky fixtures listed repays our efforts in terms of innovation and diversification."
The lighting design at the Eurovision Song Contest attracts the attention of professionals every year, since it uses the most modern technology and reveals new stage lighting trends. "I have no doubt that Fredrik Jönsson (LD) and Emma Landare (Associate LD) will do an outstanding job. The always beautiful and exciting videos and photographs of the show will travel around the world on the industry's media. It will be a perfect showcase for Clay Paky," Nahum concluded.
Clay Paky will publish a preview of how the preparatory work for the show is proceeding, consisting of photos, videos and absolutely up-to-date news, on its website and through its social network channels.
As mentioned above, the PLASA Focus Backstage Tour will feature a series of technical presentations, including one by George Masek on Going green without sacrificing technical performance. Masek, who works for ACT Lighting (Clay Paky's sole distributor for North America), will explain how Clay Paky's growing success stems from its ability to improve the luminous efficiency of is lights significantly.
Lastly, the entire Eurovision Song Contest creative team, coordinated by the production manager Ola Melzig, will be at the visitors' disposal for a question and answer session.
(Jim Evans)
